7 People Your Community Trusts MORE Than Your Church Staff

Do you trust your pastor more than your pharmacist? It might surprise you, but recent polls suggest that many professions are trusted more than church leadership. I'm Todd Rhoades, and in this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're exploring the uncomfortable truth that pastors and church staff are facing a trust deficit in our communities. We're dissecting a poll that places pastors' trustworthiness worryingly low compared to nurses, doctors, and even funeral directors. With only 37% of surveyed individuals considering pastors to have high ethical standards, it's time for church leaders to take a reflective look at how we can bridge this gap and reclaim the confidence of those we serve.

As we journey through this topic, I challenge you to consider the alignment of your private actions with your public persona and the impact that has on trust. We discuss practical steps to rebuild trust, including the importance of transparency, accountability, and contributing more value to the community than we receive. This conversation is more than just a wake-up call—it's a roadmap for change. And change begins with us, one interaction at a time. Join me as we tackle this sensitive issue head-on, and let's commit to being as trustworthy in our private lives as we strive to be in our public ministry. Share your thoughts and stories with us at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com, and together, let's restore faith in church leadership.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

Be sure to subscribe to The Healthy Church Staff Podcast wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.

- - - - -

Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.

Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Okay, this episode of the Healthy Church Staff podcast may be a hard pill to swallow, because we're going to be talking about seven people that your community trusts more than your church staff. Let's talk about it. Thanks for joining us. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders here at chemistrystaffingcom. You can check us out at chemistrystaffingcom anytime. If you're a church looking to hire new staff, if you're a staff person at a church that's looking for a new ministry opportunity, we are here to help you and you can reach out to me anytime personally at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Okay, let's talk about this new poll that came out. It's actually a few years old now, but it turns out that pastors aren't the most trusted profession anymore. Not even close. Not even close. Get this Nurses, doctors, pharmacists, high school teachers, police officers, accountants, fuel, funeral directors all score higher on the public trust scale than pastors. All of those score higher than pastors. In fact, only 37 percent say that they feel pastors are very high or high in ethical standards, honestly. And uh, 43 percent of those surveyed by gallup said that only 43 percent feel that pastors' ethical standards and honesty are average.

Speaker 1: 1:30

What does this mean? As a pastor or a church leader, you can't really rely on being automatically accepted as an honest broker these days. In fact, the reality is that and this is the hard pill to swallow the reality is that more people will look skeptically at you because of your position. You'd be better off being a high school teacher, as far as trust goes, than being a pastor. So what does this mean? It means a few things. You've got to earn your trust by being trustworthy. That seems it's not rocket surgery, but it's true. You have to earn your trust by being trustworthy and you need to put safeguards and accountability into your work and your personal life so that you don't feed the stereotype of the culture. You need to be real, you need to be transparent, both with those inside and outside of your church, and you need to offer more value than you take in your community personally and as a church. Your church needs to offer more value to your community than you take from your community. So my question for today is does it bother you that your profession, being a church staff member, is viewed as less trustworthy than accountants or funeral directors? If it does, really, there's only one way to change it and you have the power today and every day, one-on-one and in the crowd. And here's how you do it. You do what you say you'll do you act privately the way you act publicly. Do you act privately the way you act publicly? And if you do this, it'll be slow, but it will restore the trust of the pastor. We can do it, you can do it. Let's get on with it. Be a trustworthy pastor today. Earn trust by being trustworthy, by being trustworthy.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Would love to hear your comments on this. I'm sure we've all read across a pastor that necessarily wasn't as trustworthy as we thought. We've definitely heard about some of them on the news. I would love to hear your comments, your pushback, your feedback, as I always say, your snide remarks. Love to hear them. You can always reach out to me at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and let me just throw this in here If there is something you would like for me to discuss or for us to talk about here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, please reach out to me, just podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to hear from you and hopefully take your suggestion and make a podcast about it.